You and the leadership team have maintained the good quality of education in the school since the last inspection. You are leading the school with determination and purpose. Shortly after you took up post in 2015, you became concerned about the quality of education being offered by the school. Consequently, you commissioned a review by the local authority, which confirmed your findings. Since then, leaders have worked hard, and successfully, to improve the quality of teaching and behaviour. As a result, pupils’ achievement overall and for disadvantaged pupils has risen in writing and mathematics. You accept, however, that by the time they leave the school pupils’ achievement in reading lags behind these subjects. Leaders have previously prioritised reading in key stage 1, which is having a positive impact, but improvements in key stage 2 are relatively recent. Since the previous inspection, you have strengthened senior and middle leadership. Responsibilities are now shared among staff, who lead with confidence because they have your trust and have been trained appropriately. Leaders have high expectations of staff and pupils. This is evident in the rigorous appraisal system that is helping to ensure that the quality of teaching improves. It is also apparent in pupils’ very good behaviour and the calm, orderly nature of the learning environment. Leaders are also well supported by governors, who know the school and its context well. They visit frequently and ask searching questions at meetings about pupils’ achievement. This questioning, informed by reports from external consultants, school performance information and the headteacher’s report, is helping them to hold leaders to greater account and you welcome the increasing challenge governors are providing. The local authority has also played an important role in the school’s recent improvement. Their honest, objective evaluation of the school’s effectiveness shortly after you took up post helped to ‘catch the school before it fell’. There is a palpable sense that all staff are united behind the same common aims and are working hard to do their best by children. The systems and procedures implemented by leaders, whether these relate to the management of behaviour or the teaching of phonics, are applied consistently across the school. All staff who responded to the staff survey issued during the inspection agreed that they were proud to work at the school. Strong staff morale and a commitment to high expectations are driving the school forward. One pupil who spoke with me said that the staff are ‘always happy and positive’. At the beginning of the inspection, we agreed on the key lines of enquiry to be considered during the day. These included establishing the effectiveness of safeguarding and leaders’ actions to raise the achievement of pupils in reading. We also considered to what extent absence, persistent absence and exclusions were reducing. These lines of enquiry are considered below under ‘Safeguarding’ and ‘Inspection findings’, where they have not already been referred to. Safeguarding is effective. You and the deputy designated safeguarding lead have a firm grasp of child protection matters. You both ensure that staff are trained appropriately and know what to do should they have concerns about a child. Low-level observations are recorded assiduously and escalated into referrals when appropriate. Safeguarding leads respond to these referrals speedily and appropriately, calling on external agencies when necessary. They are not afraid to take advice when necessary, for example from the local authority’s multi-agency safeguarding hub. Carefully organised records are kept so that actions and staff involvement can be tracked. Checks to ensure that staff are suitable to work with children are thorough, regularly updated and complete. Pupils who spoke with me reported that bullying has decreased, and behaviour improved, since you took up post. They said that on the rare occasions that bullying or unpleasant behaviour does occur, both are effectively dealt with by staff. These pupils also showed that they have a good understanding of how to stay safe online. Inspection findings At the previous inspection, leaders were asked to raise achievement in English and mathematics. They have been successful in the main. Pupils’ achievement in writing and mathematics has risen. One reason for improvements in writing is that leaders have been proactive about tackling poor spelling and punctuation.